Flighthero66

I was on UG waitList yyc-fra a few weeks ago. This flight made my SE status. At check in there was one seat available and only me on upgrade waitList, position 1. This is 60 mins before boarding. Gate agent said it’s in the bag. Then I went to gate agent and asked if I got my upgrade to business? She said no we are full. Does that mean since I was the ONLY one on the upgrade list and now 30 mins prior to boarding, something strange happened? Also I already had a booked economy seat 19 so kinda happy to save my credits! When it’s not to be, it’s not to be.

BUT imagine my surprise at check in she took my boarding pass and said we need to fix this. Happy dance time! Then it shows seat 12. Ok maybe double business cabins. When I arrived at my seat it was the terrible PE!!! I said no no no, I will take my original seat 19 in economy. She responds we gave your seat away. I said yeah when I get a business seat! I’m not paying for PE with my valuable credits. She said oh they just gave you this as a perk cause they needed your seat no eupgrade credits will be used. I hurried to check and sure enough they returned my money and credits, 11 short! The cost of PE.

I have nothing really bad to say about PE, I just don’t value the service for the credits. I will use my eupgrade credits as I wish. Sent my refund request in and they stated no refund as the system works as it is supposed to? If you fail to get business they decide unilaterally to get you the next best seat in their eyes and charge you the credits? If I wanted that I would of applied for both. No I did not want that. Could the gate agent just ask me as this is a totally new transaction. No one asked and the FA shared its free upgrade. I wanted my original purchased seat 19 in cattle car. I have spoken to them and I requested the policy in its entirety as a 1MM I had no idea of this.

Any of you e perience this oddness???
Anyone e perience this? Is this true?

canadiancow

This works as outlined on the eUpgrade site, exactly as expected.

If you don't want PY, you need to tell them at the gate before they give your seat away.

yyznomad

You say check-in, but you must have meant at boarding because you stated you were already at the gate.

Quite often you will get agents who will tell you that J is full, almost like a default answer.

Did you try to board as soon as you could, or did you wait to near the end of boarding in case your name gets called for the spot in J, despite what the GA told you? Because once you board....

Sopwith

I’ve heard this BS about “we gave your seat away and can’t get it back” a few times. If they can take it away from me and give it to someone else without permission, why can’t they take it from them and give it back to me?

canadiancow

Because in the first instance, everything worked as advertised, and was likely automated.

But now you want them to manually go and take something away from someone.

Sopwith

We should start a thread on what AC does “as advertised” and what it doesn’t.

RatherBeInYOW

Sure. But in this case the OP got exactly what was expected; when your J upgrade fails from Y they try and put you in to PE. This is what always happens, and what is expected to happen, and as canadiancow notes it is an automated process.